Wireless communication systems, such as the 3rd Generation (3G) of mobile telephone standards and technology, are well known. An example of such 3G standards and technology is the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) (www.3Gpp.org).
Typically, wireless subscriber communication units, or User Equipment (UE) as they are often referred to in 3G parlance, communicate with a Core Network (CN) of the 3G wireless communication system via a Radio Network Subsystem (RNS). A wireless communication system typically comprises a plurality of radio network subsystems, each radio network subsystem comprising one or more cells to which UEs may attach, and thereby connect to the network.
The 3rd generation of wireless communications has been developed for macro-cell mobile phone communications. Such macro cells utilise high power base stations (NodeBs in 3GPP parlance) to communicate with UEs within a relatively large coverage area.
Lower power (and therefore smaller coverage area) femto cells or pico-cells are a recent development within the field of wireless cellular communication systems. Femto cells or pico-cells (with the term femto cells being used hereafter to encompass pico-cells or similar) are effectively communication coverage areas supported by low power base stations (otherwise referred to as Access Points (APs)). These femto cells are intended to be able to be piggy-backed onto the more widely used macro-cellular network and support communications to UEs in a restricted, for example ‘in-building’, environment.
In this regard, a femto cell that is intended to support communications according to the 3GPP standard will hereinafter be referred to as a 3G femto cell. Similarly, an access controller intended to support communications with a low power base station in a femto cell according to the 3GPP standard will hereinafter be referred to as a 3rd generation access controller (3G AC). Similarly, an Access Point intended to support communications in a femto cell according to the 3GPP standard will hereinafter be referred to as a 3rd Generation Access Point (3G AP).
In a 3G femto cell deployment, each 3G AC is arranged to support a large set of 3G APs. Each 3G AP is configured to associate with a specific 3G AC, and each 3G AC must be specifically provisioned to authorize and service each 3G AP. Typical applications for such 3G femto cell APs include, by way of example, residential and commercial (e.g. office) locations, ‘hotspots’, etc, whereby an AP can be connected to a core network via, for example, the Internet using a broadband connection or the like. In this manner, femto cells can be provided in a simple, scalable deployment in specific in-building locations where, for example, network congestion at the macro-cell level may be problematic.
Typically, each 3G femto cell AP is owned by a member of the public, as opposed to a Network Operator, and the owner of the 3G AP pays for the network resources, such as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) bandwidth, used through the femto cell.
It is known that a consequence of the introduction of numerous femto cells is a need to provision the 3G AP with various useful parameters that enable it to find suitable information to enable it to transmit and work in harmony with the rest of the macro cellular network. In this regard, the initial provisioning information of the 3G AP should allow the 3G AP to search a provided range/selection of frequencies, primary scrambling codes and transmit powers in order to find values that optimize its integration into, and minimize interference it causes, to the macro-cellular network.
Referring now to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, a known proposed architecture 100 for provisioning a 3G AC and a 3G AP in a femto cell network, is illustrated. The architecture 100 comprises a femto cell AP, for example a 3G AP, 105 that is operably coupled to a managed residential gateway, for example a 3G AC, 125 over a local area network (LAN) 120. The managed residential gateway 125 is operably coupled to an auto configuration server (ACS) 135 via a regional broadband network 130. The ACS 135 is arranged to independently provision, and receive provision parameter confirmation, the managed residential gateway 125 via southbound interface 140. The ACS 135 is arranged to independently provision, and receive provision parameter confirmation, the femto cell AP 125 via southbound interface 110. The ACS 135 is also operably coupled to a service configuration manager 145 via a northbound interface.
Referring now to FIG. 1B, the operation of the known architecture 150 is illustrated in more detail. Here, a Network Operator Management System 155 forwards configuration (provisioning) information to the femto cell management system 135. The femto cell management system 135 is operably coupled to respective logical entities a femto cell gateway (or access controller) management system (FGW-MS) 160 and a femto cell access point management system (FAP-MS) 165. The FGW-MS 160 is arranged to independently configure the femto cell gateway 125 via interface Fg 170. The FAP-MS 166 is arranged to independently configure the femto cell AP 105 via interface Fm 175.
Thus, a need exists for an improved method and apparatus for provision of information in a cellular communication network.